AZB & Partners acted on the biggest and greatest number of deals in the first quarter (Q1) of 2018, topping the charts across league tables published by mergermarket (MM) as well as by Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters (TR).

General Counsel (GC) from 87 Indian companies would mostly like foreign law firms (FLFs) to come into India, but fewer than half of them would prefer giving their business to the FLFs, even though a majority of them find that the FLFs are generally more competent than Indian law firms.

Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) company Pangea 3 co-founders Sanjay Kamlani and David Perla exited Pangea3 last month, as was agreed in its $40m acquisition by Thomson Reuters two years ago. Leaving the industry after a decade of pioneering it, Kamlani and Perla were among the first to encourage US law firms to outsource their work to Indian LPOs.

Plans for their next venture focus on India’s 40 million contract labourers, who perform peon jobs. Kamlani says that the both of them are looking to change the trend where such workers do not get full-time employee benefits despite working at the same office for years on end. [American Lawyer]

Supreme Court Cases (SCC) case reports publisher Eastern Book Company (EBC) won a temporary injunction in a Lucknow district court against Reed Elsevier India which owns publishers Lexis Nexis and Butterworths on 22 September.

EBC had the same cause of action against both companies, which was infringement of EBC’s copyright in SCC. Lexis Nexis, Butterworths, Westlaw and Indlaw had allegedly identically reproduced SCC’s editorial notes in their materials.

Like Thomson Reuters, Westlaw and Indlaw last month, the district judge restrained Reed Elsevier India, Lexis Nexis and Butterworths from infringing EBC’s copyright in SCC and from selling, distributing or publishing the allegedly copyright-violating texts in any other form online or offline, while the suit for infringement was pending.

Eastern Book Company (EBC), which publishes Indian case reports in its Supreme Court Cases (SCC) offering, won a temporary ex parte injunction in a Lucknow district court last week, restraining New York-based multinational Thomson Reuters from selling and distributing its allegedly infringing India-focused legal research products Westlaw and Indlaw. Thomson Reuters denied any infringement.

Pangea3’s full acquisition by Thomson Reuters could trigger others to follow suit, predicted the legal process outsourcing (LPO) provider’s co-founder and CEO Sanjay Kamlani in an exclusive Legally India interview, as hundreds of employees will receive a windfall from the sale that will see Pangea3 explore synergies with its new parent and expand with onshore operations in the US.